Europe, Headlines, Human Rights, Religion

EUROPE: Brussels Finds a Way to Welcome Muslims

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Oct 20 2008 (IPS) - The aroma of roasted chickens wafts through the air. Bakeries teem with baklava and other calorie-laden delights.

Only three metro stops from Brussels’ central railway station, the medieval village of Molenbeek has been described as more similar to Casablanca than to most parts of Europe. Yet while it is bound to captivate an eclectic bargain-hunter, many consider it a place to avoid because they consider it synonymous with Muslim immigrants and with crime.

Perhaps surprisingly, then, the local mayor, veteran Socialist politician Philippe Moureaux, portrays the area as a success story for good inter-communal relations. “My policy of openness to Muslims has been very much criticised but now it is being imitated elsewhere,” he told a recent conference at the European Parliament. “So far my policy has proven fruitful.”

The essence of his approach is that law-abiding Muslims are entitled to practise their religion freely. This is underscored during the holy month of Ramadan when traffic restrictions are introduced in the evenings, as traders encounter large-scale purchase of groceries in preparation for the iftar, the meal that breaks a day of fasting.

Despite being an atheist, Moureaux makes a point of visiting mosques during Ramadan. Through this symbolic gesture, he emphasises that Muslims, who make up over 70 percent of Molenbeek’s 90,000 inhabitants, should feel welcome.

Moureaux cites the decrease in support for extreme-right parties as vindication. In elections held in 2006, two candidates from the Dutch-speaking Vlaams Belang and one from the francophone Front National were elected to the local council. Before then, Front National boasted six councillors, compared to one for Vlaams Blok (as Vlaams Belang was known before it was ruled illegal in 2004).

Valerie Seyns, who represents Vlaams Belang on the local council, attributes the decline in support for anti-immigration parties to the fact that non-Belgian nationals were allowed to vote in the 2006 election for the first time. She claims that even though the commune has invested heavily in sports clubs and other facilities for young Muslims, a significant number of them have resorted to crime. “You have ghettoes in the old part of Molenbeek, where Muslims rule,” she said. “When you reach the point that police are afraid to go into certain neighbourhoods, you really have a problem.”

It is true there have been some horrific incidents here over the past few years. In 2006, for example, a teenager from Niger bled to death after being stabbed, reportedly because he refused to give his assailants the 30 euros they demanded.

But some residents counter the impression that such events are common. “This is not a crime area,” said Mukhtiar Singh, an Indian who works in a video club dealing exclusively in Bollywood movies. “I’ve been here for five years now and I’ve always felt safe.”

Earlier this year, Olivier Servaix, a sociologist at the Catholic University of Leuven, suggested that Brussels may have a Muslim majority within the next two decades. Muslims now comprise about one-third of the city’s population but have a higher birth rate than people of other religions.

With stories about Islamic extremism generating innumerable headlines since the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks, Servaix’s predictions are bound to provoke a nervous reaction in some quarters.

Visit Molenbeek, however, and Muslims insist that their religion should not be regarded as threatening to non-adherents.

Lal Shahbaz Khan undertakes social work with Pakistanis living in the commune. He says he is not aware of locals being recruited by extremist organisations. “Islam is a religion of peace,” he said. “You don’t have to do militant things in this age of reason.”

An attendant at the bookstore Librarie Al-Itra, who declined to give his name, says he is trying to break some of the taboos with which his religion is associated, by stocking titles on such topics as women’s rights. “I am against the politicisation of Islam,” he said. “We need a new spirituality based on tolerance and the search for liberty.”

“I must respect my neighbour even if he is not a Muslim,” said Abouhamid Frhan, a 23-year-old who works in his father’s shop, which sells such varied items as henna, shaving foam and tajines. Although his parents are from Morocco, he was born in Belgium. “If he is sick, I must visit my neighbour,” he added. “People should see the good side of Muslims, rather than looking at us with closed minds.”